Amara’s story being the most nuanced in that it is about more than travelling and looking at the Vord destroy everything (althout a fair bit of that, too), still wasn’t up to par. Tavi’s storyline was by far the weakest, although it did have its moments of edge-of-your-seat action (we know Jim Butcher is good at writing those). But the pacing was so off in this volume that I could rarely work up interest in any plotline. Isana, Amara, Bernard, and Ehren may be up to interesting things of their own – Isana trying to make peace with the Icemen in the north, Amara and Bernard on a dangerous mission for the First Lord, and Ehren just genearlly having his hands in a bit of everything. Tavi’s storyline takes place entirely out of Alera – first we follow him on a sea voyage drawn out for no good reason and slowing down the plot any time the point of view switched to Tavi. Pretty early on, I knew I wouldn’t love this book. Once again, the foe threatening the kingdom of Alera is the Vord, that alien species which seems to adapt to any circumstances and grow more terrifying the more they are defied. Jim Butcher returns to his well-established characters pretty much where he left them off in Captain’s Fury. And when the Alerans are cut off from their ships, they find themselves with no choice but to fight shoulder to shoulder if they are to survive.For a thousand years, Alera and her furies have withstood every enemy, and survived every foe.The thousand years are over… But when Tavi and his legions guide the Canim safely to their lands, his worst fears are realized.The dreaded Vord-the enemy of Aleran and Cane alike-have spent the last three years laying waste to the Canim homeland.

Tavi of Calderon, now recognized as Princeps Gaius Octavian and heir to the crown, has achieved a fragile alliance with Alera’s oldest foes, the savage Canim. SPOILERS for books 1-4 ahead…įirst sentence: Raucus had cut his teeth in battle at fourteen years of age. Having come this far, I will obviously listen to the last book in the series, but just to put it into perspective: Had this been a standalone novel or the first in a series, I wouldn’t feel the need to read anything else by Butcher. The fact that I didn’t immediately write down my thoughts goes to show that I was quite underwhelmed this time around. I finished the penultimate instalment of the Codex Alera a few days ago.

Codex alera book 3